New preparations of the medusa Bougainvillea principis show features corresponding to those in B. superciliaris as described by Louis Agassiz in 1850 and are presented in context with his account. Allowing for some simplification, and one possible error, Agassiz’s drawings give a good picture of the layout of the hydromedusan nervous system. On present evidence, Agassiz was the first person to discover a nervous system in any member of the Cnidaria.
Key words: nerve net, ganglion, Romanes, Oberhä user, Harvard college, Bougainvillea, Sarsia
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© 2004 Kluwer Academic Publishers
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Mackie, G.O. (2004). The first description of nerves in a cnidarian: Louis Agassiz’s account of 1850. In: Fautin, D.G., Westfall, J.A., Cartwrigh, P., Daly, M., Wyttenbach, C.R. (eds) Coelenterate Biology 2003. Developments in Hydrobiology, vol 178. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-2762-8_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-2762-8_3
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